Attacks Of The Star Clones

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Attack Of The Star Clones

or Reflections On The Attack Of The Clones & Other Aspects Of The Star Wars Universe
by Rod MacDonald.

Though impressed by Star Wars 2, I was slightly bemused by the plot so I decided to consult a couple of experts. Max, age 7, and his sister Charlotte, age 9. The children of a friend and are very well versed in the Star Wars universe and it didn't take them long to put me right about everything.

To my surprise, I discovered that the entire series isn't about Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi or even Han Solo. It's about Darth Vader. We should rename the series, 'The Life and Times of Darth Vader'. This rather pleased me because I was getting fed up with the boring holier-than-thou Jedi Knights from the good side of the force..

The battle for your pocket begins.

I thought episode 1: 'The Phantom Menace' was a bit silly - couldn't stand the Gungans, the tall species with the long ears and strange accents. Fortunately, 'The Attack of the Clones' is much better in that it has only one Gungan that I could discern, namely Jar Jar Binks, who is so stupid that he virtually hands everything over to the bad guy.

We also meet Anakin Skywalker again (Hayden Christensen) - the boy from the first film, now older and the pupil of our friend Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) - who has himself progressed to become a fully fledged Jedi Knight. Given the task of protecting Republic Senator Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman), we soon learn that Anakin wishes to look after her in other ways too. Now, this isn't part of the Jedi code.

The Republic is in danger from separatist rebels who wish Padmé dead in order to prevent her from voting against them. Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, Palpatine (Ian McDairmid), is a bit too smarmy for my liking and it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that he has a hidden agenda up the sleeve of his cloak. An attempt is made on Padmé's life - two nightmarish creepy-crawling things are put into her bedroom - and a chase through the city ensues. Being scared of heights, I found scenes of flying through sky traffic lanes quite disturbing, despite the fact that it was all computer generated.

‘Star Wars 2’ employees a great deal of computer graphics. I've watched developments over the years from ‘Babylon 5’ through ‘Gladiator’ to this. The effects are quite astounding and give a sensation very close to reality. In fact, when absorbed in the action, it's easy to forget that the scenes aren't real.

Of course, this is much more effective, cheaper and quicker than building studio models and because everything is new and exciting, there is the tendency for technicians to show off what they can do. More and more special effects will be called for in the future. This is to be expected and there's nothing wrong with this in the mean time - audiences will go through a familiarisation process until things becomes old hat just as they have with other movie enhancement techniques. After this, attention can then be refocused on quality of script and actors, if indeed the latter survives.

Though full of computer generated scenes, this movie doesn't seem to fall down on other aspects. Characterisation is quite distinct - excepting the army, they aren't all clones. Obi-Wan's demeanour comes out as tedious and nagging at times. That's probably because he's just become a fully established Jedi and goes by the book. A bit of a jobsworth in effect - something like a traffic warden for the force. Is it any wonder that Anakin rebels against his master and is ultimately drawn to the dark side? Anakin himself resembles a yob schoolboy while Padmé is the hard to get schoolgirl with a fast evaporating sense of chastity.

Celibacy is part of the Jedi code. This seems illogical! If they're not producing children, the Jedi become an endangered species and what will become of the galaxy without them? Another point concerning the huge army of clones, which is secretly made using a bounty hunter as the original mould, why didn't they use a Jedi instead? Irrespective of how well Jango Fett, the bounty hunter, could fight, a Jedi with highly attuned senses would make a much better adversary. Maybe this is nit-picking because there were really very few flaws in this film.

The original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy was quite remarkable. Purists will say that it's too commercial, too twee or too something else that comes to mind but I think it was not only entertaining, colourful and fantastic, it was a good story. Likewise, some have objected to the prequal, saying that it's unnecessary.

I'm not so sure. A lot of unanswered questions arose from the first trilogy and there's no reason why they shouldn't be addressed in a new series. It also gives us a chance to get back into the ‘Star Wars’ universe. People will eagerly await the third film but there seems quite a lot to pack into it - maybe it will be a three hour job?

To the purists I'd give the following analogy. I like malt whisky. Should someone in a bar, especially in Scotland, be seen pouring Coca-Cola into it, reactions of horror would ensue. But, I'd say this to them: You and I wouldn't drink it like that but if he wants to, then why not? Not only is he making the drink more popular, there may be a day when he'll take it with just water. However, the main thing about the ‘Star Wars’ series is that it shouldn't be taken too seriously. It isn't a real reflection of our, or any other alien species', future.

When you take a close look at some aspects of the ‘Star Wars’ series, it's possible to discern a few similarities to Asimov's novel ‘Foundation And Empire’ but the main mistake in both is the extrapolation of 20th century politics to some distant-in-time galaxy-wide civilisation. A galactic empire containing a hundred billion stars with maybe a billion times this figure of inhabitants must necessarily be a very complex affair.

With a bureaucracy probably taking the entire efforts of hundreds of planets, communication alone would be a nightmarish problem. If you think Earth with its ethnic divisions is a controversial place at times, imagine the polemic vicissitudes of countless and varying alien species? Certainly a Senate as portrayed in ‘Star Wars’ would be next to useless in efficacy. Indeed, a droid or clone army of the size depicted in ‘Star Wars 2’ would be an ineffective drop in the ocean. Basically, on analysis, the whole concept of a galactic empire is nonsense.

And then we come to the Star Wars machines. The giant AT-AT walkers in 'Empire Strikes Back' are like white elephants that belong more to an HG Wells novel than anything that may exist on a technically advanced planet. The Americans in Afghanistan point the way to the nature of future conflicts. Soldiers will not be seen squandering their lives in a battlefield charge - instead, massive daisy-cutter bombs will clear the way of any potential trouble. Technical war will be conducted remotely with few combatants involved.

Of course, George Lucas will know all this. What he gives us in the ‘Star Wars’ series is a reflection of what we want to see. It's entertainment on a grand scale. We even have a basic religion of sorts where the priests, the Jedi knights, actually run the show. This religion, a basic yang and yin of positive and negative, male and female, good and evil, light and dark is something we're all familiar with and there are no new moral messages coming from the Force.

This doesn't mean that it has to be rubbish. On the contrary, to be successful and capture public imagination it has to be very well done. On going into a cinema, you leave the ordinary world behind and go into this imaginary universe with its own set of laws and conditions. To be believable, it has to be good otherwise it will be treated with contempt.

And nobody does it better than George Lucas. He directed the dark and serious 'THX1138' in 1970 and followed this up in 1973 with 'American Graffiti' which I think is in the top ten of best ever films. The first ‘Star Wars’ came out in 1977 - it was unlike any other film that had been made previously and it took the world by storm. It was space opera and, in terms of opera it resembled more a Mozart's 'Marriage of Figaro' - a light, continuous piece which has always something going on, rather than Wagner's moody and occasionally brilliant 'Tristan and Isolde'. The first three ‘Star Wars’ episodes were followed by the 'Indiana Jones' series, again immensely successful and popular.

There is some doubt as to whether or not Lucas intended writing a sequel which would have carried on Luke Skywalker's future. Who knows what would have happened? Maybe his sister, like father Darth, would have turned to the dark side for a good old family feud? We have instead the prequal and, who knows, the sequel may come yet.

I think it's certainly true to say that Lucas made things up as he went along. Princess Leia Organa probably, at the outset, wasn't meant to end up as Luke's sister and the robots were likely included as novelty pieces. Obi-Wan, on the other hand, is a strange character. Why was he effectively taken out of the action in the first movie when he had some mileage left in him? His demise left you thinking that, all along, he was a ghost. Maybe ‘Star Wars 3’ will answer this question?

Space opera as it is, ‘Star Wars’ doesn't warrant an 80,000 word dissertation which delves into the hidden meanings of actions and characters within the plot. It's not surreal, esoteric or hugely thought-provoking. It's fun and should be treated as fun. Above all, and this is the most important point of all, it's a successful commercial venture.

Irrespective of anything else we may think about the series, George Lucas is first a businessman and second an artist. He got lucky with the first ‘Star Wars’ film, saw its potential and made the other two. Years later, with new audiences such as Max and Charlotte ready and waiting, he revived the old stuff by digitally enhancing the footage and put in a few extra scenes to give continuity to the prequal. The first aim, as with the vast majority of films, was to be financially successful. Expectations were realised.

Finally, Max and Charlotte must be mentioned for their tremendous impersonations of C-3PO and R2-D2. Charlotte has C-3PO's walk, voice and mannerisms done to perfection while Max, moving along on his knees, is more than adept at mimicking R2-D2.

Rod MacDonald

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